Audience Of One
by shialuvr222
Summary: How far could it possibly be to the hospital? It's never seemed this long before. And why are you sweating when you feel so cold? Oneshot.


A/N: Short oneshot that I basically came up with as I went along :) It's a songfic to Audience Of One by Rise Against. PLEASE review!

Disclaimer:I don't own NCIS or any of the characters, nor do I own the song Audience Of One by Rise Against. No legal action required. :)

_I can still remember  
>The words and what they meant<br>As we etched them with our fingers  
>In years of wet cement<em>

This is all your fault.

That's all you can think as you drive altogether too fast to the hospital. Abby was hurt, and it's your fault. You don't even notice how terrified Tony is in the passenger seat, don't hear him when he tells you to slow down. You don't realize that your driving challenges that of Ziva's or Gibbs'.

_The days blurred into each other  
>Though everything seemed clear<br>We cruised along at half speed  
>But then we shifted gears<em>

How could you be so careless, you ask yourself. How could you let this happen? You should have known that the suspect was going to hurt Abby the whole time. It didn't make sense, but you should have known. You even interrogated him, for God's sake.

_We ran like vampires from a thousand burning suns  
>But even then we should have stayed<br>But we ran away  
>Now all my are friends are gone<br>Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved_

You accidentally take a corner too fast - but you're taking everything too fast, aren't you? When Gibbs called, you dashed out to the car. Tony was lucky he was closer than you, because you wouldn't have waited for him to get in. As it was, you tore out of the Navy Yard with him half hanging out of the vehicle. He had to pull the door closed before you hit sixty.

_Run away  
>But what are we running from?<br>A show of hands from those in this audience of one  
>Where have they gone?<em>

He checks the speedometer. You're pushing ninety-five. It doesn't seem nearly fast enough to you.

Your thoughts are going almost as quickly as the vehicle. How could you have prevented this? Was there something you could have done?

Of course there was. You were just too stupid to see it.

_Identities assume us  
>As nine and five add up<br>Synchronizing watches  
>To the seconds that we lost<em>

How far could it possibly be to the hospital? It's never seemed this long before. And why are you sweating when you feel so cold?

_I looked up and saw you  
>I knew that you saw me<br>We froze but for a moment  
>In empathy<em>

As you finally approach your destination, a new thought races through your mind.

Why was it Abby? Why did it have to be her? Why couldn't it have been you?

She didn't deserve to be shot once, let alone three times. She didn't deserve the hospital. She deserves so much more than that.

_I brought down the sky for you but all you did was shrug  
>You gave my emptiness a name<br>But you ran away  
>Now all my friends are gone<br>Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved_

When you pull into the parking lot, you open your door and jump out without even applying the brake. Tony somehow stops the car before it collides with any others, but you don't see that. You run as fast as your legs can carry you to the nurse's desk, and ask for an Abigail Sciuto so quickly that you have to repeat the question for them to understand you.

_Run away  
>But what are we running from?<br>A show of hands from those in this audience of one  
>Where have they gone?<em>

You run until you reach the room the nurses direct you to, but then you stop short. Gibbs is standing outside the door, and you look to see if he's realized yet how much your fault this is yet. Apparently he hasn't.

It doesn't look good, he says.

The doctors don't expect her to make it through the night.

_We're ok, until the day we're not  
>The surface shines, while the inside rots<br>We raced the sunset and we almost won  
>We slammed the brakes, but the wheels went on<em>

You enter the room quietly, closing the door behind you. You hate seeing her connected to machines and IV's, though you know that they are currently the only thing keeping her heart beating. You stand by her bedside and take her hand, pressing it against your lips. You close your eyes, inhaling her scent that not even the ammonia smell of the hospital can hide.

Your other hand gently touches her hair, feeling the softness and length. You memorize every aspect of her, repeating over and over that you love her, though you wish you had taken the chance to say it before.

And then everything melts away.

_We ran away  
>Now all my friends are gone<br>Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved_

You don't know that it was all a dream. You won't know anything, ever again. You don't realize that she's the one breaking traffic laws to make it to the hospital, or that you're the one in intensive care. You don't hear her crying or see Gibbs take her in his arms as you flatline at four A.M. .

You never will.

_Run__away_  
><em>But <em>_what __are __we __running __from?_  
><em>A <em>_show __of __hands __from __those __in __this __audience __of __one_  
><em>Where <em>_have __they __gone?_

A/N: PLEASEOHPLEASE review! :D


End file.
